A robot may perform an assigned task in various manners. For example, the robot may have the option of traversing an end effector such as a claw or other tool along any one of multiple “candidate” paths between a first location and a second location in order to perform the task. Additionally, the robot may be able to perform various aspects of the tasks in a variety of configurations. For example, depending on the nature of an object to be moved, the robot may have the option to position a claw around the object from a variety of angles, any of which may be acceptable. Further, the robot may be able to strike any number of different sets of poses while performing the task. The paths, configurations, and poses available to the robot may be limited only by inherent constraints of the robot (e.g., its reach), environmental constraints (such as obstacles), and/or constraints associated with objects to be acted upon (e.g., is it permissible for the object to be tilted while moved?). However, depending on the paths, configurations and/or poses selected, the robot may experience a variety of costs, such as wear and tear, or excessive motion that may unnecessarily increase robot task execution time or endanger personnel near the robot.